Small Town News

Poster child for nausea

Recently, something came to my attention that seemed clever. It said the Good Lord knew how senior citizens hated formal exercising. Therefore, he made them forget where items were, forget why they were in a room in the first place, repeat acts and drop items they had to bend over to retrieve, make two or three trips to the car before finding everything needed, and a few other moving and shaking excuses. This way the older ones get action.

I thought of a few other helpful acts such as getting to the phone before it stops ringing, or hearing it ring the first place, but that list gets boring and personal. 1 began to speculate on any improvements for seniors, such as not being in a rush much of the time, not worrying as intensely about problems we can do nothing about, and I thought of a personal sur-prise I've encountered since retirement.

I have finally outgrown or outlived my car sickness, being in a moving car with my head faced forward, not daring to look elsewhere unless I become nauseated.

This has been a lifetime problem for me. I know it isn't entirely gone as I could be a Poster Child for nausea. I've had only one roller coaster ride in my life, not many ferris wheels and nothing with carnival rides that spin or take the floor away. I don't like spending the rest of any day recovering from needless motion.

As a child, I rode in the back seat of the family car with my brother. Mother rode shotgun. Not many had yet realized that front seats made the car sickness lessen.

I can't forget a family outing in downtown Dallas, my dad in a busy lane of traffic, and I was standing behind him to look straight ahead. Suddenly, I said, "Daddy, I'm sick," and before I could evade the inevitable, I had vomited down his back. That's all I can recall.

As I learned to drive and sat in the front seat with friends who were droving, I improved somewhat, but no reading allowed.

Looking at a map made me ill. Years rolled by. Then I retired and one day, in the passenger side, I was reading a newspaper and not feeling queasy. I pushed for more normalcies and soon was working puzzles, even writing a little. But no sewing. Of course, I don't swing my head unnecessarily. I consider this new ability at being more normal a small miracle. Time will tell. Anyway it's wonderful while it lasts.

Copyright 2015 The Malakoff News, Malakoff, Texas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

Original Publication Date: April 24, 2015

Copyright: Copyright 2015 The Malakoff News, Malakoff, Texas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.